En una oscura y brumosa noche, en el pequeño pueblo inglés de Radcot, los lugareños se reúnen en la taberna Swan para compartir un trago e historias llenas de sabiduría popular. La taberna es famosa por reunir a los mejores narradores de cuentos populares, pero esa noche la tertulia nocturna se ve interrumpida por la llegada de un hombre misterioso empapado en sangre que carga en brazos a una niña inconsciente. Antes de que el hombre pueda emitir explicación alguna, cae derrumbado. Mientras tanto, río arriba, dos familias buscan desesperadamente a sus hijas, Alice Armstrong, desaparecida desde hace veinticuatro horas tras el suicidio de su madre, y Amelia Vaughan, desaparecida dos años atrás sin dejar rastro alguno.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

One of the most pleasurable and satisfying new books I've read in a long time. Setterfield is a master storyteller...swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful. --Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe and The Song of Achilles

A beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing. --M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans

It's a gripper. It takes you by the elbow on the very first page. --Jim Crace, National Book Critics Circle and Booker Prize winner and author of Being Dead and Harvest

From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the eerie and fascinating (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a richly imagined, powerful new novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious.

On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.

Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son's secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson's housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone's. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl's identity can be known.

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.